


Born to Run

by gossipgardener



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen, Ginny centric, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, Wandless Magic, no beta we die like men, no character bashing i changed my mind
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-01-29 15:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21412249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gossipgardener/pseuds/gossipgardener
Summary: Ginny Weasley, the Girl-Who-Was-Unimportant. A Ginny centric fic where she is in fact not the embarrassed Griffindor, not pining over Harry Potter, not writing in a mysterious book that writes back, and not the quiet daughter she’s supposed to be. Summary will update as fic goes on.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 25





	1. Yellow Hills

**Author's Note:**

  * For [souvenirscar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/souvenirscar/gifts).

> this is my first fic so please have mercy!! leave a comment and constructive criticism and enjoy! ill link a playlist eventually! ᛁ don’t have a solid outline yet so ill take suggestions! if you comment & harass me about it ill be more likely to update. Also, ᛁ don’t have a beta at the moment so if you see errors please let me know!

Ginny Weasley had been hearing about quidditch all her life. She heard headboys and prefects being crowned and even Fred and George getting off the hook for pranks because they were just so good, do they think they'll be beaters on the Gryffindor team? Above all else though, she heard about Gryffindor. Gryffindors, where everyone in her family had gone. Gryffindor, where good people go. Gryffindor, because _why would you want to know about Ravenclaw? They’re all stuffy and boring anyways._

Ginny Weasley had heard tales of quidditch to go to bed at night because while Fred and George (of course they read to her together - they were inseparable) were supposed to be reading to her about princesses and castles they argued with Ron about the Chudley Cannons instead. Molly didn’t approve, exactly, but above all else Ginny would eventually be expected to sit in the stands and cheer on her brothers. Charlie looked set to be on a professional team out of Hogwarts and it wasn’t like she would be, y’know, actually playing. Quidditch was a_ boy’s sport_ and Ginny could get badly hurt if she tried to play.

Ginny Weasley really did try. She tried to be a nice, polite girl, the delicate Gryffindor daughter Molly loved so much. She tried to cook patiently and tidy the house and wax her brother’s brooms (but never ride them) and to curtsey just right when they had guests over. Instead of enjoying the outdoors or riding on even a training broom that could go no higher than three feet she sat inside like a _lady_, reading.

Once it was decided that Ginny was a quiet obedient girl, she went pretty much unsupervised. Or at least as unsupervised as you can get in a house with six siblings. Being unsupervised as an eight year old didn’t mean much at first; she had little children’s books to read and not much else to do. The heavy, ancient books in teetering stacks and ripped school texts with grubby pages were too hard for her to read, and it wasn’t like she had a wand.

Wands were another big thing in Ginny’s life. She didn’t have one, of course, and neither did Ron. Fred and George, about to start their first year at Hogwarts, and just purchased theirs and were greatly enjoying perfecting tripping jinxes and hair color spells. Ginny couldn’t wait to get one; she had been told all her life that you can’t just do magic without a wand.

There was, of course, accidental magic, but that hardly counted. Sometimes, she would sneak outside under the guise of reading under a tree or picking apples in the orchard, and wave sticks around in the air. She had stopped once Molly caught her and told her in a condescending way that the moment for dusting spells was _this_ and the movement of laundry spells was _this_.

That was the night, the night she was caught in the orchard and her cheeks burned with shame because Molly thought she was practicing cleaning charms. That was the first time she snuck out of her room, tiptoed over the creaky stairs, and grabbed an old book on magic.

Under other circumstances, maybe, she would’ve grabbed a book on jinxes. Under other circumstances, she would’ve grown up on a broom along side her brothers. Under other circumstances, she was caught grabbing the book because she wasn’t quiet enough on her way upstairs. Under other circumstances, she wasn’t the youngest, only girl.

These thoughts did tend to make themselves known, and so Ginny, with worst case scenarios running through her head, grabbed a dusty, abandoned tome of magical theory. It wasn’t a small book, nor would it be particularly easy to understand, but she was itching for a challenge. She glanced over the scene of the crime one last time, to be sure it didn’t look like anything was amiss, and scurried the four flights to her room.


	2. Valleys Deep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ginny goes looking for books and I procrastinate writing anything but filler

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i b like: *doesnt update* 
> 
> i mess with canon some more! leave a comment, harass me for updates, and send in suggestions! also, im considering making it be a bit of an unreliable narrator situation, so the whole things a bit more plausible. thoughts?

Ginny Weasley was exhausted. One night of reading turned into a week, and even witches and wizards start to feel sleep deprivation eventually. Despite the books density, she was already about a third of the way through it.

The book was titled _Magickal Theorem _and detailed what wand movements generally meant; a swish for for movement, flick for direction, and more forceful to put more power behind it. It spoke (and the book did speak - it helped with your pronunciations) of Latin and Greek words, Norse alphabets and Arabic symbols.

After she had browsed the table of contents, Ginny determined the first half was mainly charms - and a few chapters that she’d read later about constructing her own - while the rest of the book was split evenly between potions and transfiguration. She thought that some of the language was too flowery but if you looked past that, it would a very useful book. 

Usefulness aside, most of the information wasn't terribly applicable without a wand. It wasn’t like Ginny could just waltz down to Olivander’s whenever she wanted and buy one. Plus, the trace would be in effect and her mom wouldn’t let her do magic at home anyways. 

Considering that, she had a few options. She could try to make a wand, though the process was a closely guarded trade secret and she wasn’t sure she had the supplies. Plus, though wood was in abundance in the Weasley household, things like phoenix feathers or dragon heartstring were a bit harder to come by. Also, a wand would be hard to hide if she was successful, since Olivander wouldn't be able to match her with one when she was eleven.

Or... Ginny could learn wandless magic. She knew it was possible; her mom could light candles with a wandless _incendio _andBill could send silent stinging hexes, the only reason the twins gave him mercy from their pranks. It wasn't taught at Hogwarts, so because Bill went through a wandless magic phase, it meant they would have a couple books on the subject. Plus, wasn’t accidental magic wandless? It couldn’t be too hard if babies could do it.

Humming to herself, she decided that the next morning, she would scope out the bookshelves for anything on wandless magic. Ginny set down her book, sliding it under her bed as she thought. If she decided to ‘really dust everything down’ (an excuse she knew she could get away with) she could probably search most of the shelves. It couldn't be that hard to find some reading material on the subject.

* * *

The next morning, Ginny found out that it _was_ that hard to find useful books. Also, up until now she had no idea just how _many_ books they had. The burrow was bigger than it looked; it seemed like there were as many expansion and stabilization charms as there was wood during construction. 

Nevertheless, upon offering faux excitement on dusting the shelves, her mom quickly agreed to let her off other chores, reassigning clearing out gnomes to Fred and George. Ginny had spent more time than she had expected actually dusting; some bookshelves looked as though they hadn't been disturbed in years. It was actually fairly satisfying, seeing the house so nice.

Another benefit of dusting, she had realized, was that tomes she would've otherwise been caught borrowing were fair game - there was no dust left to disturb. Plus, she even knew exactly which books no one would notice going missing, and which shelves were far more commonly accessed.

Right around when dinner preparations would be starting, Ginny slipped up to her room under the guise of washing off any household grime that had gotten on her. In reality, she was returning _Magickal Theorem_, and bringing up three more books: _Magick Most Charming, 1,001 Hogwarts Spells, _and_ Mathemagician's Guide to Wand Movements. _

The charms book was from the late 1800s; old enough to be mostly irrelevant, but new enough that it wasn't a proper heirloom. The 1,001 spells book was nearly unused; with that many siblings, all attending Hogwarts, your family didn't need extra material on it. The guide to wand movements was her real prize though, with detailed reasoning for each swish and flick, and numerous diagrams. It looked untouched, and had probably just been forgotten.

The missing books would all go unnoticed, and although Ginny had yet to find anything on proper wandless magic (or at least anything she could get away with borrowing), she still had hope. If she grew terribly desperate, she could take the blame for one of the twins pranks, and have them pay her back by getting the book.

A shout from downstairs, echoing with what must've been a low powered _sonorous_ (something she had only just read about, and felt very self satisfied from knowing), calling the family down for dinner. Ginny smiled; she had been working hard all day and a nice filling meal sounded just about perfect to her. 


	3. Stranger Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ginny has the house to herself and makes the most of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for my abysmal updating schedule/response time! i really dont have an excuse besides stress? my creative writing high school application is due saturday for me which im still procrastinating on starting
> 
> anyways! im very tired but at least i got the chapter uploaded! ill probably go back and edit it some more later though

Ginny Weasley was bored. It was as simple as that; she was nine now and even though they were really quite useful, reading textbooks all day and doing nothing with everything she had learned was boring. Normally, Ginny would hole up in her room in the afternoons, or hide out in the orchards for some calm. It was well known in the Weasley household that quiet, peaceful, time alone was valuable, as someone was always up to something.

Today, however, was different. Charlie and Bill were taking Ron off to look at brooms and buy new quidditch gloves. Fred and George were going with, having managed to explode most of their school quills in some experiment gone wrong. Percy was headed to Diagon too, having finished all his summer homework and deciding that he had earned some of Florence Fortescue's famous ice cream. Ginny had politely declined an invitation to join them, citing a headache.

After a lengthy talk with her mom, consisting of endless platitudes and reassurances that she would be just fine at home, and her headache was nothing to worry about. It had taken all the persuasive power and a few references to all the times the twins had gotten in trouble unsupervised to get her mom to accompany her brothers on their trip. Her dad was off on an emergency call to the ministry; apparently, muggle baiting with shrinking keys was quite a popular trend.

Truthfully, Ginny didn't in fact have a headache. However, what she did have was the rare chance of having the Burrow all to herself, and she was going to make the most of the opportunity. Namely, she was going to finally, finally be able to try her wandless magic. With the house empty, and her unaffected by the trace, the chances of her getting caught were practically nothing. It wasn't like the ghoul in the attic would notice, much less care enough to tattle to her parents.

As soon as she heard the last voice (she had been counting - the only one left to leave would be Bill, the eldest, making sure no one was left behind) and as soon as a muffled "Diagon Ally!" sounded from downstairs, Ginny breathed a sigh of relief. She now had approximately three hours to do whatever she wanted. She had been planning this for weeks, and had been just waiting for a chance to go completely unsupervised.

Nine year old Ginny struggled to pull several heavily bookmarked tomes from under her bed, and a few sheets of cramped notes and diagrams from a narrow space she had found below a single loose floorboard. She decided that the first spell she learned would be a levitation spell; her arms hurt from all that lifting.

Ginny spread her books and notes around her on her bed, and after giving them one last look over, she pulled out a quill. She lifted the quill in the palm of her hand, and took a deep breath. Concentrating, she whispered "_Wingardium leviosa_", hoping to see the quill rise. It didn't.

She was admittedly a bit discouraged, but knew wandless magic was rumored to be hard for a reason. Looking down at her books, she tried to remember all the tips and tricks they recommended. Most books just boiled down to saying you had to concentrate, picture the result, and want it to happen. Once you had that, it was as simple a matter as pushing with your magic.

Ginny didn't have too much experience with 'pushing out with her magic' but figured her sheer determination would make up for it. Glaring at the quill in her hand, she tried again and again and again. Nothing happened. No matter how hard she concentrated, how frustrated she got, how intently she stared. The stupid quill absolutely refused to budge.

She was fed up. Ginny glared at the quill in her handmade before hurling it at the wall of her room, snarling “_WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!_” as it fell. She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her anger leave in a rush. It felt rather odd, she reflected, that she was suddenly so calm after being so riled up.

Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes, and gasped. The quill - the bloody stupid quill that just wouldn’t float - was hovering there. Just a couple centimeters above the floor, granted, but hovering. Levitating. Even though as soon as she made this realization, it dropped, she still felt excited. Ginny had done wandless magic - mostly even on purpose!

Grinning from ear to ear now and not caring how silly she looked, Ginny sped over to retrieve the quill. It would be hard, but she felt confident she could do it again. Staring at the quill in her ink stained palm, she tried again.

“_Wingardium leviosa!_”


End file.
